Background

Ethnicity: Ben Affleck is of English, Irish, German, Scottish, Scots-Irish, distant French and Swiss-German, remote Swedish and Welsh heritage.

Ben Affleck was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, Alameda County, California, United States. He is the son of Timothy Byers Affleck and Chris Anne (Boldt) Affleck, an elementary school teacher. His family moved to Massachusetts when he was three, living in Falmouth, where his brother Casey was born, before settling in Cambridge. His parents divorced when he was 12, and he and Casey lived with their mother.

Education

Ben Affleck attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and here he met his co-star, co-writer and a close friend Matt Damon, who was two years older to him. He graduated from school in 1990. Aflleck dropped out of Occidental College after one year, where he had studied Middle Eastern studies. He also dropped out of the University of Vermont after one semester.

Career

After doing a series of role in 1990s like: "Lifestories: Families in Crisis" (1990), "School Ties (1992)", "Dazed and Confused" (1993), "Mallrats" (1995) and "Chasing Amy" (1997), Affleck made a stint in direction with his 16 minute short comedy called "Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney". Also, in the beginning of his career he appeared on several 'Saturday Night Live' episodes.

It was in 1997, when Affleck made a big name for himself along with his actor and close friend Matt Damon. The movie was actually a play written by Damon when he was at Harvard and he showed the play to Affleck. They both wrote it together to turn into a screen script. They both later acted in the movie which was a story about a complicated math genius who is a janitor at MIT.

Affleck starred in Armageddon (1998) opposite Bruce Willis. The film received mixed to negative critical reviews, but was a box-office success, earning $553 million worldwide. In 1999, he co-starred with Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy Forces of Nature. In 2001, Affleck collaborated with Armageddon director Michael Bay in the war film Pearl Harbor. The film opened to a mixed to negative reception, but was a box-office success, earning $449 million worldwide. Affleck partnered with Damon, and founded the production company LivePlanet. The duo produced the documentary series Project Greenlight, which gave aspiring screenwriters the opportunity to produce their creative visions. The show earned three Emmy nominations in the category of reality programming.

In 2002, he was cast as Jack Ryan, a role previously played by Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford, in the fourth film in the techno-thriller series The Sum of All Fears. The movie, which ignored the story lines of the previous Jack Ryan films, also starred Morgan Freeman. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post wrote that Affleck and Freeman "create a believable chemistry". In the same year, Affleck starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson in the popular thriller Changing Lanes.

The following year, he starred as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in Mark Steven Johnson's film Daredevil (2003). Affleck said Daredevil was his favorite comic book as a kid and explained why he took the role by saying "Everybody has that one thing from childhood that they remember and that sticks with them. This story was that for me."

Despite some critical missteps, his box-office successes reportedly earned Affleck an average of $15 million per film. Following Daredevil, Affleck starred in several critically panned box-office flops, including Gigli (2003) and Surviving Christmas (2004).

In 2007, Affleck made his feature film directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone, for which he also co‑wrote the screenplay based on the book by Dennis Lehane about two Boston-area detectives investigating a little girl's kidnapping and how it affects their lives. His brother Casey starred in the film. The film received critical acclaim.

In 2009, Affleck returned to acting, starring in three features, He's Just Not That into You, State of Play, and Extract. Affleck directed his second feature, The Town, an adaptation of Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves, that was both a critical and commercial success when it was released in theaters in 2010. Affleck was awarded the Chairman's Award in the 2011 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Affleck also directed his third feature, Argo, for producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov. The film tells the story of a CIA operation to save six diplomats during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis by faking a production for a large-scale science fiction film.

Also with Argo, Affleck is the first director ever who failed to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Director, yet went on to win both the Golden Globe and the Directors Guild of America awards for best directing, in 2013. For the same film, Affleck has also won the Critic's Choice and BAFTA awards for best director, while the film has been named Best Picture in the previously mentioned organizations as well as the Producers Guild.

In 2013, he hosted the sketch comedy show 'Saturday Night Live'. In August 2013, Affleck made headlines for signing on to play the Dark Knight in Batman v Superman, with Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel. Batman fans' reaction to Affleck's casting was swift and harsh, with some even starting a petition to remove him from the role. But Affleck also received tremendous support from within the Hollywood community from the likes of director Joss Whedon and Val Kilmer, who starred in Batman Forever. In 2014, Ben Affleck starred in the David Fincher's psychological thriller 'Gone Girl'. In the movie, he portrayed the character of a husband, who is accused of murder.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was released in 2016, and although the film received generally negative reviews, Affleck was praised by critics for his portrayal of Batman. Affleck also made an appearance as Batman in the hit superhero film Suicide Squad (2016) and reprised the role for Justice League (2017).

In 2019 Affleck headlined the cast of Netflix's Triple Frontier, as a down-on-his-luck military veteran who gets recruited for a lucrative mission to take out a South American drug lord.

Achievements

• Ben Affleck has appeared in more than 50 films and has received many awards and honors throughout his career. He is the recipient of two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Affleck first gained recognition as a screenwriter for co-writing Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon, winning both the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.
  
  In 2000 he was chosen as one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. In 2002 he was named People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive". Affleck was ranked #41 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List. In 2013, Affleck received an honorary doctorate from Brown University.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Jersey Girl

    (Ollie (Affleck) is a smooth and successful big-city publi...)

    2004
  • Phantoms

    (Five lone survivors in a devastated town must face the un...)

    1998
  • The Battle of Shaker Heights

    (For troubled high school senior Kelly Ernswiler (Shia Lab...)

    2003
  • Chasing Amy

    (Cult comic-book artist Holden (Ben Affleck) falls in love...)

    1997
  • Extract

    (Joel is one step away from selling his flavor extract fac...)

    2009
  • School Ties

    (After receiving a scholarship to an exclusive prep school...)

    1992
  • Argo

    (Based on real events, the dramatic thriller "Argo" chroni...)

    2012
  • State of Play

    (Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe leads an all-star cast...)

    2009
  • Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

    (When best buddies Jay and Silent Bob discover that a majo...)

    2001
  • Runner Runner

    (A college student (Justin Timberlake) takes the ultimate ...)

    2013
  • Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

    (From director Zack Snyder comes "Batman v Superman: Dawn ...)

    2016
  • Daddy and Them

    (When a poor Arkansas family's uncle is charged with murde...)

    2001
  • Gone Girl

    (Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike head an all-star cast in th...)

    2014
  • Dogma

    (Bartleby and Loki are fallen angels, eternally banished f...)

    1999
  • Dazed and Confused

    (Matthew McConaughey and Milla Jovovich star in this 70's ...)

    1993
  • Hollywoodland

    (Based on the true story of Hollywood's most notorious uns...)

    2006
  • Man About Town

    (Successful, hardworking and unscrupulous, Jack (Affleck) ...)

    2006
  • The Sum of All Fears

    (Ben Affleck is fledgling CIA analyst Jack Ryan, who disco...)

    2002
  • Live By Night

    (A group of Boston-bred gangsters set up shop in balmy Flo...)

    2016
  • Speakeasy

    (After being randomly brought together in a car accident, ...)

    2002
  • Gigli

    (When small time street thug Larry Gigli meets a tough and...)

    2003
  • Mallrats

    (Jason Lee, Shannen Doherty and Ben Affleck take on the ma...)

    1995
  • Reindeer Games

    (After assuming his dead cellmate's identity to get with h...)

    2000
  • Daredevil

    (A lawyer blinded by radioactive waste fights crime as an ...)

    2003
  • Gone Baby Gone

    (Two Boston area detectives investigate a little girl's ki...)

    2007
  • Stolen Summer

    (In mid-1970s Chicago, an Irish Catholic boy sets out to c...)

    2002
  • Clerks II

    (Ten years ago best friends Dante Hicks and Randal Graves ...)

    2006
  • Feast

    (One evening at a rural bar, a motley bunch of patrons str...)

    2005
  • Justice League

    (Batman, Wonder Woman and an all-star team of superheroes ...)

    2017
  • Paycheck

    (A computer engineer whose memory is erased following a to...)

    2003
  • Elektra

    (Jennifer Garner electrifies as an assassin whose change o...)

    2005
  • Glory Daze

    (With college graduation pending, the old gang tries to av...)

    1995
  • Shakespeare In Love

    (A young Shakespeare, out of ideas and short of cash, meet...)

    1998
  • Triple Threat

    (This breakneck thriller teams over half a dozen of the wo...)

    2019
  • Suicide Squad

    (A secret government agency recruits imprisoned supervilla...)

    2016
  • To The Wonder

    (From director Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven, The Thin R...)

    2012
  • Good Will Hunting

    (Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT, has a gift for mathematic...)

    1997
  • Boiler Room

    (An ambitious, intelligent college dropout takes a job at ...)

    2000
  • The Third Wheel

    (Luke Wilson is joined by Denise Richards in this sexy, ri...)

    2002
  • 200 Cigarettes

    (A collection of twentysomethings try to cope with relatio...)

    1999
  • Joseph: King of Dreams

    (Joseph (voiced by Ben Affleck), his father's favorite son...)

    2000
  • Going All the Way

    (After returning home from the Korean War, two young men s...)

    1997
  • Forces of Nature

    (A soon-to-be-married man encounters an exciting stranger ...)

    1999
  • The Company Men

    (Three men must redefine their lives when they go from liv...)

    2010
  • The Town

    (A bank robber falls in love with a former robbery hostage...)

    2010
  • He's Just Not That Into You

    (An all-star cast looks for love and finds laughs in this ...)

    2009
  • Changing Lanes

    (A young New York lawyer and a businessman share a small a...)

    2002
  • Bounce

    (A man switches plane tickets with another man who dies in...)

    2000
  • Surviving Christmas

    (A lonely, obnoxious young millionaire pays a family to sp...)

    2004
  • Smokin' Aces

    (Slick Las Vegas illusionist Buddy "Aces" Israel isn't pla...)

    2006
  • The Accountant

    (A forensic accountant un-cooks the books for illicit clie...)

    2016
  • Armageddon

    (A large asteroid is heading directly toward Earth.)

    1998
  • Pearl Harbor

    (A tale of war and romance mixed in with history. The stor...)

    2001

• TV series

  • Project Greenlight Season 1

    (In Season 1, director Pete Jones navigates the tricky wat...)

    2001
  • Project Greenlight Season 4

    (Season 4 takes a revealing, uncensored look at the challe...)

    2015
  • Project Greenlight Season 2

    (For its second run, the contest was split into two catego...)

    2003
  • After School Specials

    (Ben Affleck starred in "Wanted: The Perfect Guy" episode.)

    1986

Religion

In a 2003 interview, ben Affleck described himself as a "lapsed" Protestant. In 2005 he said "I have my own spirituality, which is of Western Christian spirituality, that is very effective for me." In 2015, he began attending Methodist church services in Los Angeles.

Politics

Ben Affleck has long been a vocal supporter of the Democratic party, spending his time off-set campaigning for candidates and once even considering his own political career. He supported Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during their 2000 presidential runs. He campaigned for John Kerry in 2004 and Barak Obama in 2008.

Views

Despite his fairly raucous reputation in Hollywood, Ben Affleck has managed to prove that he is also a philanthropic man. In 2010, Ben and his business partner, Whitney Williams decided to help out those who were suffering in the Eastern Congo. Affleck had previously visited the Eastern Congo region and saw the poverty-stricken landscape for himself. So, the pair set up the Eastern Congo Initiative non-profit charity to raise awareness for the region, and also actively help them out.

Alongside his work in the Eastern Congo region, Ben Affleck is also an avid supporter and member of the Feeding America initiative. This charity supports the creation and maintenance of hundreds of food banks across the country. He regularly makes appearances at these food banks and volunteers his service for those in need, and writes articles for major publications about the charity and its work.

Quotations: "No matter how much you change, you still got to pay the price for the things you’ve done."

"I find forgiveness to be really healthy."

"I'm human, just like anybody else."

"The value of work, and of always learning something new, and what it takes to achieve excellence. I really believe in those things that you have to dedicate yourself and spend time, that excellence is elusive. It's a little maddening, to try to have that level of discipline in your life, and I don't succeed all the time. But I do try."

"Anybody tells you that money is the root of all evil doesn't have any."

Membership

Ben Affleck is a member of the Five-Timers club, a nickname for performers who have hosted Saturday Night Live at least five times.

Personality

Throughout his early years, Ben Affleck watched his father struggle with alcoholism. However, as Ben got older, he began to experience his own problems with drink. In 2001, he admitted himself into a rehab clinic – as he had seen the destructive effects of alcohol on his own family. He quit smoking when his daughter, Violet, was born. Affleck can conversate in French and Spanish. He also knows Arabic. His favourite books are The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuściński, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch, etc.

Quotes from others about the person

• "I love Ben Affleck so much. He's an amazing director." - Taylor Schilling.
  
  "I sought Ben Affleck because I needed an everyman for this role. Ben appeals to men and women. He gives you a sense of intelligence, the notion of a guy who can think on his feet." - John Frankenheimer.
  
  "I like Michael Bay a whole lot. And Jerry Bruckheimer. But I love Ben Affleck as a person, as a director, as an actor." - Tom Sizemore.
  
  "I'm a big fan of all the Boston guys that are acting - Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Mark Wahlberg - they made a great career out of it, and they found a way to do it and still be cool guys, so that's kind of where I want to be." - Kenny Wormald.

Interests

• football, baseball

• Writers

  William Strunk Jr., Ryszard Kapuściński, Philip Gourevitch

• Artists

  Robert Englund

• Sport & Clubs

  Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins

• Music & Bands

  Foy Vance

Connections

One of the longest relationships Ben Affleck’s ever had in dating was with a girl named Cheyenne Rothman. They met in high school and ended up in a relationship lasting from 1990 to 1997. A couple years went by before Affleck found another girlfriend. He was on and off in relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow for a year. They broke up finally in 1999 and remained good friends. By 2002, he was involved with Jennifer Lopez, another relationship everyone was sure would end up in a marriage. Together for two years, Affleck backing out of the marriage to Lopez after a long engagement.

Affleck began dating actress Jennifer Garner in mid-2004, having established a friendship on the sets of Pearl Harbor (2001) and Daredevil (2003). They were married on June 29, 2005, in a private Turks and Caicos ceremony. They announced their separation in June 2015. They jointly filed for divorce in April 2017 and it was finalized in October 2018. They have three children: two daughters and a son.

Father:

Timothy Byers Affleck

Mother:

Christine Anne Affleck

Brother:

Casey Affleck

ex-spouse:

Jennifer Garner

Daughter:

Violet Anne Affleck

Daughter:

Seraphina Rose Elizabeth Affleck

Son:

Samuel Garner Affleck

Friend:

Matt Damon

Friend:

George Clooney

Friend:

Charlie Sheen

Friend:

Jimmy Kimmel

Friend:

Jennifer Lopez

Friend:

Tom Brady

References

• Matt Damon and Ben Affleck: On and Off Screen
  1998
• Matt & Ben
  2004